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The following has been published on Membersnet in the last hour. The selection timetable is incredibly short, but considering the Election Day is just three weeks away the party doesn’t really have any choice on this occasion…

“Labour will selecting its candidate for this by-election on the evening on Tuesday 12 February.

Should you wish to submit an application to be considered as candidate it must be sent to ecv@labour.org.uk by 12 noon on Saturday 9 February.

Candidates who are invited for interview must be able to attend an interview in London on Monday 11 February. Shortlisted candidates must be able to attend a selection meeting in Eastleigh on the evening of Tuesday 12 February.”

Would like to see a candidate with experience of real life like our candidates in Carlisle and Great Yarmouth.

aracataca

… or Lisa Forbes, who is standing for Peterborough. Owen Jones has donated £1,500 towards her campaign. And the money came from …. Lord Ashcroft.

Before any of our LL regulars trot out the (falacious) argument about Labour being in cahoots with the Tories, I should point out that Owen won a prize at the Political Books Award ceremony, and the prize money was donated by Ashcroft.

Owen has said that he is delighted to give half of his £3,000 prize money to Lisa Forbes. He continued: ‘[She is] a brilliant principled working-class woman standing [for Labour] against right-wing Tory caricature MP Stewart Jackson in Peterborough. Ashcroft money well spent. The other half to Disabled People Against The Cuts, fighting for disabled people getting a kicking by the Tories.’

Repost:
Guardian are reporting Ashcroft’s Eastleigh poll. Con 34, LD 31, Lab 19, UKIP 13. Can Labour improve on 19% with only 15 days to campaign & no candidate selected yet? I hope we can but it’s a big ask!

NT86

19% isn’t bad, but I think a good campaign could possibly get Labour up a few more percentage points.

Will be interesting to see who UKIP selects now that Nigel Farage has ruled himself out. They’re possibly going to act as a voter splitter of the Tories.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

We need to really start motoring. We need to be a lot closer to the coalition parties to show we can win across the south.

Are we realy saying that 65% of voters in this seat are happy with the coalition Government?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

We need to really start motoring. We need to be a lot closer to the coalition parties to show we can win across the south.

Are we realy saying that 65% of voters in this seat are happy with the coalition Government?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

We need to really start motoring. We need to be a lot closer to the coalition parties to show we can win across the south.

Are we realy saying that 65% of voters in this seat are happy with the coalition Government?

Brumanuensis

It’s probably more that we’re just not in the minds of voters in Eastleigh, having effectively thrown the seat to the Liberals for years.

kb32904

That poll reckons that we are up 9% since 2010 GE but its going to be have to be one heck of a climb to win the seat and I just hope the eventual candidate is up for it. It concerns me that a candidate hasn’t been selected when the Huhne case was known about well in advance and we should have been prepared.

NT86

If Labour wants to make a serious impression in seats like Eastleigh for the future (especially with Lib Dem support collapsing nationally), they *must* field candidates of a calibre that is over and above the average. Local candidates are one thing, but it will take a lot to convince voters in such areas to opt for Labour itself.

It’s a tall order, but selectors need to look at the example of Gisela Stuart. She has managed to hold onto a very middle class seat for four terms now, bucking Labour’s national trend in 2010. She’s marked herself out as a good local MP and a Eurosceptic who’s been critical of her own party’s stance on the matter. Had anyone else won Edgbaston in 1997, I daresay that the Tories would have already regained it.

Gabrielle

The National Health Action Party is also fielding a candidate. I think they will do very well – Dr Richard Taylor, who’s the co-chair of the party, won Wyre Valley twice as an Independent because of concern locally about Kidderminster Hospital.

Voters are suspicious of politicians, and Huhne’s behaviour reinforces that negative image. On the other hand, people trust and like doctors.

Gabrielle

The NHA Party are going to lay it on the line to Eastleigh voters exactly what’s happening to our NHS. Too many people are still in the dark about this, not least because of the failure to report it – notably by the BBC.

I think many people will be horrified and angry, and it would be good to see the NHA take votes from both Coalition parties for their role in selling off the NHS.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715486331 Alex Otley

They won’t even come close to saving their deposit. The only party that can restore the NHS is Labour.

Chris Matheson

NH Action Party: naive, well meaning, but ultimately self defeating: the only party they would really damage electorally is Labour, the only party that would protect the NHS. Crackers.

http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

” Labour, the only party that would protect the NHS.”

Disingenuous nonsense. You might be able to fool some of the people some of the time, but you won’t be able to fool all of us all of the time. How about you start by explaining how Labour’s plans to privatise the NHS were a form of protection?

When Prof Allyson Pollock, onetime special adviser to the Commons Select Committee on Health blew the whistle on the uneconomic case for Labour’s PFI programme (with a series of articles in the BMJ) she was asked if it was in her “career interests to brief against senior NHS officials”. She was then replaced by a market friendly academic.

Finally, in an abuse of parliamentary privilege, a back-bencher was detailed to insert some paragraphs into the Health Committee’s report claiming her research unit’s work showed “a lack of sound analysis” and “antagonistic extreme views”.

And we all now know how the PFI project turned out.

In Prof Pollock’s book NHS plc: The Privatisation of our Health Care (2004) you and read all about Labour’s privatisation plans, and weep:

Disingenuous nonsense. You might fool some of the people some of the time, but you won’t fool all of us all of the time. How about you start by explaining how Labour’s plans to privatise the NHS were a form of protection?

When Prof Allyson Pollock, onetime special adviser to the Commons Select Committee on Health blew the whistle on the uneconomic case for Labour’s PFI programme (with a series of articles in the BMJ) she was asked if it was in her “career interests to brief against senior NHS officials”. She was then replaced by a market friendly academic.

Finally, in an abuse of parliamentary privilege, a back-bencher was detailed to insert some paragraphs into the Health Committee’s report claiming her research unit’s work showed “a lack of sound analysis” and “antagonistic extreme views”.

And we all now know how the PFI project turned out.

In Prof Pollock’s book – NHS plc: The Privatisation of our Health Care (2004) you can read all about Labour-led privatisation:

Disingenuous nonsense. You might fool some of the people some of the time, but you won’t fool all of us all of the time. How about you start by explaining how Labour’s plans to privatise the NHS were a form of protection?

When Prof Allyson Pollock, onetime special adviser to the Commons Select Committee on Health blew the whistle on the uneconomic case for Labour’s PFI programme (with a series of articles in the BMJ) she was asked if it was in her “career interests to brief against senior NHS officials”. She was then replaced by a market friendly academic.

Finally, in an abuse of parliamentary privilege, a back-bencher was detailed to insert some paragraphs into the Health Committee’s report claiming her research unit’s work showed “a lack of sound analysis” and “antagonistic extreme views”.

And we all now know how the PFI project turned out.

In Prof Pollock’s book – NHS plc: The Privatisation of our Health Care (2004) you can read all about Labour-led privatisation:

If this was Stafford, they might stand a chance. Dont think they will do well here, although I suspect they might save a deposit, though at the expense of Labour.

Gabrielle

The NHA Party are going to lay it on the line to Eastleigh voters exactly what’s happening to our NHS. Too many people are still in the dark about this, not least because of the failure to report it – notably by the BBC.

I think many people will be horrified and angry, and it would be good to see the NHA take votes from both Coalition parties for their role in selling off the NHS.

David Brede

Clearly the challenge is to confront the Lib Dem voters with the notion that voting for them does not keep the Tories out and see what happens.

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